Tuna Pasta Salad with Peas

$3.82 recipe / $0.64 serving

The weather has been getting warmer and the days have been absolutely gorgeous. We’ve been doing a lot of grilling and cooking out lately which puts me in the mood for cold pasta salads and other potluck classics. I’m sure this recipe has been around for a gazillion years and rightly so. It’s delicious, well rounded (starch, protein, veggies) and it fits Budget Bytes principle #2 (using less expensive filler ingredients to reduce cost per serving). Tuna was at one time inexpensive but I wouldn’t exactly consider it so these days ($0.70 for a 5 oz. can). So, by adding pasta and peas to what would be an otherwise fairly expensive and small tuna salad, the volume has increased and cost per serving has decreased.

The sweet peas perfectly balance the pungent onions in this salad and both veggies offer great texture variation in each bite. For the dressing, I used light mayo (because this isn’t 1950) and lemon juice for brightness. It’s simple, it’s delicious, it’s a classic. If you make a variation of this salad at home, I’d love to hear your version!

Tuna Pasta with Peas

4.67 from 9 votes

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Tuna Pasta Salad with Peas

This creamy tuna pasta salad with peas is easy, delicious, and filling. It's great to eat cold on a hot summer day!

Total Cost
$3.82 recipe / $0.64 serving

Prep Time10minutes

Cook Time10minutes

Total Time20minutes

Servings6

Ingredients

12oz.bow tie pasta $0.88

5oz.can chunk light tuna in water $0.70

1medium lemon, juiced$0.25

1/2cupdiced onion (yellow, purple, or green)$0.25

1/2tsp.salt $0.05

to taste fresh ground black pepper $0.05

3/4cuplight mayonnaise $1.00

2cupsfrozen sweet peas $0.64

Instructions

Take two cups of peas out of the freezer and let thaw on the counter. Cook the bow tie pasta according to the package directions (boil 5-7 minutes). Drain in a colander and let cool.

As the pasta is draining and cooling, combine the rest of the ingredients (peas, tuna, mayonnaise, lemon juice, onions, salt and pepper). Adjust the lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

If your pasta is still hot when you are finished combining the rest of the ingredients, run cold water over it until it has cooled down. Make sure to drain the pasta well before combining it with the rest of the ingredients. Stir the pasta into the pea/mayo mixture until it is well coated. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve!

Recipe Notes

If you want your tuna to stay in chunks, add it last (after the pasta). The more the tuna is stirred, the more it will break up. I found out the hard way by adding it in the beginning.

You can put frozen peas directly into the salad without thawing them first as long as you do not plan on serving the salad right away. This salad gets even better as it sits in the refrigerator!

Step By Step Photos

I combined my tuna, peas and onions first. This is a great way to use up left over onions from other recipes. I had both purple and green.

Threw it together the night before and packed it for mine and the hubby’s lunch today. He sent me a text to ask if there was any leftover, which i take as a thumbs up ;-)

I took your advice and waited to add the tuna till the end, it stayed in nice defined chunks. I also couldn’t get over how non-vegetal this tasted but it had a ton of peas in it, which was very nice, since I wanted the tuna to be the star, but packing veggies in is important. Only change was the grocery stores fault, I had to get tuna in oil, but frankly, i am not complaining, i am oldschool and like it that way lol.

This is a great salad- made it today and added celery and cilantro – amazing! Added a bit of a extra crunch and spice to it. I had forgotten to put the mayo in it , and still liked it but even better with mayo! Thank you!

I grew up on tuna pasta salad (broke divorcee father LOVED making it).. we used cream of mushroom soup instead of mayo. Not sure which is more nutritionally sound, but either works just as well. I also though instead of the mayo, a balsamic vinaigrette (creole mustard, olive oil, and balsamic) would be great… much healthier than mayo (less additives as well) without losing the creaminess.

Hi! I’m Beth

As a food lover and a number cruncher I've decided that cooking on a budget shouldn't mean canned beans and ramen noodles night after night. Join me for delicious recipes designed for small budgets. More »